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Rafy Evans knows her job isn’t normal. As she stood with YouTube star David Dobrik and spun a wheel promoting his new app, “Dispo,” for a chance of winning a Tesla, the Syracuse University alumna felt the experience was surreal.

“That was a moment for me that I was like, ‘Okay, I’m in exactly the right place. I’m in exactly the place I need to be to get where I need to go,’” Evans said.

Evans is TikTok star Bryce Hall’s assistant. But aside from being occasionally featured on Hall’s Instagram account of 7.9 million followers, she’s a problem solver, facilitator and support system for all of the other content creators who live and work in the Sway House — a multi-million dollar collaborative mansion in Los Angeles also known as the Triller Air House.

The alumna credits her time at SU and University Union for preparing her to be around celebrities without being starstruck. Hall and the other famous talents Evans works with have become close friends, and she wants to be like an older sister to the creators and help them talk through the ups and downs of their job.

Although her life now involves frequent cameos from celebrities such as Dobrik and Noah Beck, her life after graduating from SU in 2019 was less glamorous. Evans said she was the type of person who “never did just school.”

Evans worked her way up UU’s ranks and eventually became the organization’s public relations director, a position she credits for sparking her passion for working in entertainment. She also held multiple internship positions at companies such as Sony Music.

Being Bryce Hall’s assistant has allowed Evans to be occasionally featured on Hall’s 7.9 million follower Instagram account. Courtesy of Rafy Evans

People often told her that she would be successful in finding a job after graduation, but that wasn’t the case. It was a rude awakening, Evans said.

“Don’t ever believe anyone when they tell you that,” she said.

She was unemployed for six months after graduating, working briefly in July and August 2019 as a media coordinator and videographer at Camp Menominee, an all-boys overnight camp in Wisconsin.

For Evans, working at the camp will “go down in history as one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my entire life,” as she feels it set her up perfectly for her role working with Hall and other teenage boys at the Sway House. At the camp, Evans did video and social media work and was able to realize that she liked to be around college-aged people in a developmental mentorship role.

She went from Camp Menominee to her first full-time job as a communications specialist at the University of Florida. Eight months into the job, she got a call from the CEO of TalentX Entertainment — a talent development and social media monetization company — who said she was recommended for a position she didn’t know she was being considered for.

Following her interview with TalentX Entertainment and Hall, Evans quit her job at the University of Florida. Two weeks later, she was on a plane to LA.

As Evans sits in her LA apartment, decked out in free merch from Triller — another platform that Hall works on — she laughs at how little she knew about the city before moving across the country.

“I like chaos a little bit, which makes sense for what I do, so I was ready for the challenge,” Evans said. “And I figured at no point in my life otherwise could I be doing something like this, so I might as well lean into it as much as I could.”

Evans sees Hall as one of the “major league players of content.” She wants to help Hall be the best creator out there, whether that’s through answering emails, organizing PR packages for his energy drink or cleaning up after the three boys and video editor who live in the Sway House.

The attitude that Evans adopts toward her work isn’t new. SU alumna Kyla Perlman remembers how dedicated Evans was to her work during their time together at UU.

“Once she likes something and wants to be involved in something, she puts 110% into it,” Perlman said. “Which is one of the best qualities to have, especially when you’re working in a digital space.”

She recalled how Evans took on the role of marketing director at UU single-handedly, even though it’s not a role that’s meant to be for one person. The problem-solving they had to do at UU helps her in her job with Hall because she knows how to stay calm during a crisis, Perlman said.

And Evans is familiar with handling a crisis. The SU alumna shocked influencer Curtis Newbill, who has 6.8 million followers on TikTok, by helping the members of the Sway House with a leak that caused water to pour through the ceiling in the middle of the living room.

Evans had to climb down to the exterior pipes — which were on the side of a cliff — to turn off the water and stop the leak. Even though that and many of the other tasks Evans completes for Hall and the other creators aren’t in her job description, she does whatever is needed for them to be successful, Newbill said.

“It’s kind of crazy the amount of work and responsibility she does because typically assistants sit and do emails or answer phone calls,” Newbill said. “They’re not hiring a circus and getting snakes and alligators.”

Nick Schlegel, a talent manager at TalentX, said that Evans brings “everything” to Hall’s team. He’s always impressed by her ability to bring a level of maturity and organization, as well as a can-do attitude, to the creator’s team.

There can be a level of immaturity to creators, as they often don’t understand the business side of content creation or don’t have the drive to get things done, Schlegel said. Evans is able to get “these guys off their asses.”

“She is definitely a very important part of not just Bryce’s team but the Sway House and sort of our management company in general,” Schlegel said. “Without her, a lot wouldn’t get done, and because she specifically is there, everything gets done in a much better manner than could be done.”

Every day that Evans spends with Hall, she does something that somebody would consider their best day, Evans said. Since internet creators have no rules, she and Hall’s team are trying to be as creative as possible and see what sticks. And right now, a lot is sticking, she said.

 

When Dobrik came to the Sway House to promote his app, it was a surreal experience to see him and his assistant Natalie Mariduena, who made the blueprint for what it means to be a YouTuber’s assistant.

Mariduena has become famous and was recently on the swimsuit cover of Sports Illustrated. While Evans doesn’t see herself becoming an influencer like Mariduena, she doesn’t want to say no to the possibility. Right now, she enjoys being on the back end of the creator world.

“My goal has always been to be a well-known industry person,” Evans said. “I would rather have clout for being really good at what I do and for people to know that I’m very good at what I do.’”

Published on March 21, 2021 at 10:23 pm

Contact Sydney: sabergan@syr.edu